Florida Trail Ocala Section Pt. 3

Poets and beer and bears, oh my!

Per usual the resident crackhead sandhill cranes woke me at dawn. I wasn’t really feeling breakfast, so I settled for a Snickers, then fought my way through the palmettos to offload some cargo. I checked my water supply and confirmed that I had 3 liters to get me to the next good water source 8 miles up the trail. At this point, having eaten quite a bit of my food, my pack weighed less than 25 lbs. even with that 3 liters of water.

I packed up and hit the trail, quickly entering some quality scrub with a perfect sandy tread. I continued to be amazed at the condition of the trail. Kudos to all of the trail volunteers who keep it looking so nice.

About a mile into the morning I reached a creek that didn’t have an adequate log for crossing, so I just walked through it. My shoes were dried by the Florida heat within 15 minutes.

Right after this creek crossing was one of the prettiest patches of prairie yet.

Not long after this I re-entered the scrub and discovered that Florida had hills! Real hills that involved hiking UPHILL. After over 4 days of nearly level hiking, it was a strange sensation. Even weirder was that at the top of one of the hills there was an honest to gosh VIEW!

At 3 miles I reached the domain of BAD BEAR- Hidden Pond. This place was a gem of a spring-fed pond, with crystal clear water and abundant campsites shaded by live oaks, and I could see why people persisted in trying to camp there.

There was a short stretch of dry sandy prairie ringed by scrub right after Hidden Pond, where I found a patch of shade for 2nd breakfast.

I was immediately besieged by Florida Scrub Jays. There were enough of them in my immediate vicinity to warrant de-listing from the Threatened Species List. They did their best to yogi some treats from me, to no avail. I managed to snap a pic of one of the braver jays.

They are actually very attractive birds with a surprising amount of blue coloration.

The temperatures were rising rapidly, and there was nary a cloud in the sky, so I employed full sun hoodie mode when I departed.

The next few miles alternated between prairie and scrub, with the scrub sections feeling noticeably hotter. It became apparent that my 3 liters of water was only barely going to be enough to get me to Hopkins Prairie.

I passed several small prairie ponds during this stretch, and finally decided that I had best filter a liter to supplement my supply. So I filtered a liter with my BeFree, and then tossed in an AquaMira tablet for good measure. A short time later I sampled it. And it tasted like rotten cow butt. Well, I thought, this is why I brought some NUUN tablets. I tossed in a berry-flavored one and waited, then sampled it again. Nice- it now tasted like berry-flavored cow butt. I consigned it to emergency use only and continued on up the trail

As I approached Hopkins Prairie, the trail entered a more mature forest with live oak branches arching over the trail. A different form of “green tunnel” from the AT, but with welcome shade.

I passed the first spur to Hopkins Prairie Campground (I was aiming for the second one), crossed a small ATV road, and entered a thick woods. Suddenly, I heard heavy rustling to my right. Oh shizzle I thought, this just might be a bear. I stopped and peered intently into the forest a mere 30 yards or so away. Something big was moving back there, and finally I saw it’s head. Yup- a bear. Right at that moment it saw me too and made a strange grunting sound, kinda like it was pissed, so I slowly backed up the way I had come, yelling loudly and making myself big with the aid of my trekking poles. I had almost returned to the ATV road when the bear exploded. I couldn’t tell which way it was going, but my adrenaline certainly got activated. And right as I reached the ATV road, so did the bear.

I snapped this pic while turning and slowly backing up down the ATV trail. An old reggae song popped into my head- “Don’t Trouble Trouble.” It appeared that I had done so.

The bear stared at me for maybe 5 seconds, and then it bluff-charged me. I remained calm and continued to yell and back away slowly, but internally I was sharting all over myself. The bear came to a halt maybe 25 yards away, and then reared up on its hind legs (apparently to get a better look at me). This caused my adrenal glands to have a seizure. However, the bear then returned to all fours, gave me a dismissive grunt, and slowly walked off into the woods.

I backed up a little quicker, and soon found myself on the dirt round into Hopkins Prairie Campground. Apparently, this was a bear that lurks at the edge of the campground by day, then comes in at night looking for treats.

The campground itself had a few folks with pop-up campers already setting up. I quickly found the water pump, where I was pleased to once again run into Poet. He had stopped for a lunch break and very generously offered me a slice of pizza! Serious trail magic right there. He was amused by my bear encounter.

We were NOT amused by the orange water that the pump produced. Rust water! Well, aside from my liter of cow butt, I was dry, so I had no choice- I filled my 4L HydraPak with water that had more metal in it than Flint Michigan’s water had. And yes, both filter and tablets were employed.

Poet had miles to lay down and soon departed, but I wasn’t planning on going much further, so I hung out in the shade for at least another hour. Mosquitoes eventually started harassing me and got me motivated to get back to hiking. Almost immediately I was back out at the edge of Hopkins prairie, with the late afternoon sun absolutely baking me. I had hoped to stop after another mile and a half or so, but there just weren’t any campsites to stop at.

3 miles after leaving Hopkins Prairie campground, and with my energy levels flagging rapidly, the trail finally turned to the east and at least had me facing away from the sun. But still, no campsites.

Finally, after almost 4.5 miles I came to a now somewhat shaded portion of prairie that had a small campsite on the other side of the trail.

I quickly deployed my tent and rewarded myself for a difficult afternoon.

I decided that this wasn’t the night to cook, so I boiled a cup of water and made some Heather’s Choice Chicken Mole for dinner (review to follow later). I was exhausted, and fell asleep well before hiker midnight. Day 5: 12.8 miles.

I foiled the cranes the next morning by setting my alarm for 6:30. It was much more pleasant to wake up to soft music than to the cranes’ usual ululations.

I had some tasty Good2Go granola for breakfast, then leisurely packed and hit the trail by 8:00, an unusually swift morning performance by my standards.

The trail quickly returned to the scrub and crossed a pair of forest roads. Interestingly, there was a water cache at one of them, provided by somebody who referred to themselves as The Drone Angel. He had a system for telling how much water was left, and once a day would fly in his drone to check on things. He would come out in person to replace water jugs when the supply was low. I later ran into some hikers who met the Drone Angel; they said he even let them pilot the drone.

Also, I spooked another bear in the scrub. This one turned tail and fled the moment it knew I was there, for which I was thankful since we were a mere 16 yards apart when we became aware of each other.

I gave serious thought to replacing some of my orange iron water with Drone Angel water, but decided to leave it for more desperate hikers than I.

I passed another nice pond at a mile and a half. I was too lazy to check if it tasted like bovine butt.

At around 2 miles I reached the junction with the spur trail that led 3 miles to Salt Springs. This is a fairly popular town for resupply, but my eye was on a different prize later in the day.

The trail then went through a long stretch of various longleaf pine forests. Even though they offered some dappled shade, it was still plenty hot. I learned later that the high for the day was 91 degrees!

The charred appearance of the tree trunks attested to the periodic use of fire by the Forest Service.

After crossing paved County Rd. 314 at 5 miles, the trail continued to meander through pine forests, with frequent crossings of small jeep trails.

Eventually the trail turned north, and after another mile I found what I had been looking forward to.

A short walk up that hill behind the sign led me to something amazing.

Situated on a dirt road across from a small group of mobile homes in the middle of nowhere, the 88 Store is a legendary stop on the Florida Trail. Not only are hikers welcomed, the store offers a limited resupply (including fuel), showers, laundry, and A FREAKIN PUB!!!

I was somewhat dehydrated from hiking 10 miles in 5 hours in oppressive heat, so I did the smart thing- I ordered a beer.

This was not just any beer. That is a frosted mug, and yes that’s ice on the rim and ice cold Coors within. Words simply cannot describe how good this beer tasted. I tipped the bartender handsomely, and she let me know that there was some ham and beans and cornbread for free at the end of the bar.

I then purchased and chugged a quart of Gatorade. Now more properly hydrated, it was time for….another beer, this time with food.

I then had another quart of Gatorade…..and then the siren song of the bar called to me one more time.

I wandered around the store after this just to check out what it offered. Not an outstanding food selection, but adequate for a couple of days for a thru-hiker.

I grabbed yet another Gatorade and went outside to lounge on the large front porch. There was a convenient outlet for recharging phones that already had an octopus of cords emanating from it, belonging to a pair of section hikers- Crazy Legs and Bear Spray.

They were on their first-ever section hike, so we traded experiences, gear tips and more while we lounged for a good two hours at the corner table. The rest of the porch hosted a revolving cast of 8-10 Florida crackers. The conversations we overheard were hilarious.

Around 3:30 Crazy Legs took off for Grassy Pond, but Bear Spray and I hung behind until 4:00, at which time the tiny BBQ place next door opened. I schmoozed the proprietor into making me some sandwiches to go, which I delicately placed in the top of my pack. A quick visit to the bathroom allowed me to dump my orange iron water and replace it with overchlorinated but clear faucet water. I left Bear Spray still waiting for his burger.

The 2.1 miles to Grassy Pond went quickly, and the short side trail led to a large, well-mowed lawn of sorts near the water. Crazy Legs was already cooking his dinner, so I joined him.

Bear Spray soon arrived empty-handed. He had wolfed down his burger while hiking. We then set up our tents, and I watched Crazy Legs execute one of the highest bear hangs of all time.

Grassy Pond was mostly hidden behind shrubs and trees, but you could tell from the limited shoreline access that it was probably spring-fed. Crystal clear and great-tasting water. We chatted for a bit until dark. A great day it had been- beer, BBQ for dinner and a couple of new friends. Day 5: 11.8 miles.

CLICK HERE TO READ PT. 4